you know, when you spend your whole life in the environment, you learn every square inch of the beautiful everglades. >> reporter: these fields of saw grass and marshy woods are also home to 68 threatend or endangered species. birds, hundreds of alligators, and something you can't see, tens of thousands of burmese pythons. the snakes are foreign predators devouring the native animals that belong here. they can eat bears, you say, even panthers? deer? >> deer, hogs, and smaller animals. >> reporter: which is why on saturday the state of florida kicked off what it calls the python challenge. a month-long snake hunt with prizes for those who catch and kill pythons. 1,000 people have signed up, most of them amateurs like sean and kate hicks of georgia. >> we have zero experience, zero hunting experience, and i've never killed anything ever. we'll see. i don't know. >> reporter: sean heard about the challenge and signed up as a christmas present for his wife. >> we brought a big 18-inch machete, knife. so -- >> reporter: do you know how to use it? >> no, never used it in my life. i assume i sw